Guard finger and ledger plate



' Feb. 23, 1954 A. M. VlK 2,669,831

GUARD FINGER AND LEDGER PLATE Filed Feb. 4, 1952 ,y M g I 'VIIIIIIIIIIII a In UEntOf k Mm M By v A itorneys Patented Feb. 23, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GUARD FINGER AND LEDGER PLATE Albam M. Vik, Karlstad, Minn.

Application February 4, 1952, Serial No. 269,743

1 Claim. 1

My invention relates to improvements in guard fingers and ledger plates, and the primary object of the invention is to provide an improved form of guard finger wherein the ledger plate is, securely held without screws or rivets, and wherein the ledger plate is easily and quickly inserted or removed from the guard finger when desired, but normally remains securely in place therein.

Other important objects and advantages of my invention will be apparent during the course of the following description.

With the foregoing in view, the invention resides in the novel subject matter hereinafter described and claimed, the description being supplemented by the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of the embodiment partly broken away to show the arrangement of the ledger plate in the guard finger.

Figure 2 is a longitudinal sectional view taken through Figure 1 substantially on the line 2-2 and looking upwardly in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 3 is a bottom plan view of the ledger plate.

Figure 4 is a transverse vertical sectional view taken through Figure 2 substantially on the line 4-4.

In the drawings wherein for the purpose of illustration is shown a preferred embodiment of the invention the numeral 5 generally designates the guard finger with which the ledger plate 6 is assembled. The guard finger consists of a relatively heavy metal body I of substantially conventional shape and provided with the usual table forming portion 9 for the ledger plate 6 and the body is also provided with a rearwardly extending guard member 8 which spacedly overlies the ledger plate 6 when the ledger plate is in place on the table portion 9. A transverse rib ill at the rear end of the table portion 9 has a seat II which forms a continuation of the table forming portion and whose opposite side walls 22 and I3 converge toward the table portion 9 and in addition incline laterally inwardly or are under-bevelled as evident in Figure 4 of the drawing.

At the forward end of the table portion 9 the tip portion of the finger guard has a recess 14 conformably receiving the flat rounded terminal 15 on the end of the ledger plate, the longitudinal spring-accommodating recess I 6 merging at its forward end into said recess under the ledger plate.

The ledger plate 6 has arivet l1 transversing the ledger plate and securing to the underside of the plate the stop l8 which is engaged with the forward end of the expanding spring I9 which has its rear end abutted with the rear end of the spring recess l6 so that the ledger plate is normally pushed toward a forward position on the guard finger in which the bevelled flaring lateral extensions 20 and 2| on the rear part of the ledger cooperate with the under-bevelled walls 12 and I3 of the seat I! to operatively mount the ledger plate on the guard finger. It is obvious that the ledger plate may be quickly and easily removed from the guard finger by moving the plate to the rear against the tension of the spring [9 a suflicient distance to disengage the bevelled extensions 20 and2l from the walls l2 and I3 of the seat ll.

Although I have shown and described herein the preferred embodiment of my invention it is to be understood that changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of the parts within the scope of the subjoined claim.

It is thought that the description taken in connection with the drawing will enable a clear understanding of the invention to be had. Therefore, a more lengthy description is regarded as unnecessary.

Since excellent results are obtainable from the details disclosed, they are preferably followed. However, as premised, numerous modifi cations may, of course, be made within the scope of the claimed invention.

Having described the claimed as new is:

A device of the character described, said device comprising a guard finger comprising a ledger plate, a table formed with a spring recess having a straight vertically arranged rear wall, a transverse rib at the rear of the table and formed with a depressed seat having forwardly converging under-bevelled end walls, a ledger plate lying on said table over said spring recess with its rear end engaging the depressed seat, lateral extensions on the opposite sides of the rear end of said ledger plate, said extensions having their lateral extremities forwardly converging and bevelled to conform with the end walls: of said depressed seat, a spring stop connected with the underside of the plate and having a portion extending rearwardly, and an expanding spring in said spring recess having its front end fitting over the rearwardly extending part of the stop with its rear end engaging the rear wall of the recess, said spring pushing said ledger plate forwardly, said ledger plate having a reduced terminal on its forward end slidably received in a conforming socket formed in said guard finger at the forward end of said table.

invention, what is ALBAM M. VIK.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,650,861 Borkhuis, Jr. Nov. :29, 1927 2,057,860 Tolmie Oct. :20, 1936 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 193,154 Great Britain Feb. 19, 1923 

